Dear Netflix, Stop Talking About Issues You Don’t Understand

TRIGGER WARNING: suicide and anorexia are discussed in this piece.

On March 31, 2017 Netflix released the now extremely popular and controversial series, “13 Reasons Why”. Hannah Baker, a high school sophomore dealing with bullying and slut-shaming at her new school, is the protagonist of the series. This eventually leads her to commit suicide.

The series was primarily produced by Selena Gomez, a woman who never actually attended high school, receiving her diploma through homeschooling. The show has received a lot of backlash as well as many negative reviews by psychologists and school counselors for its glorification of suicide, instructional messages to young audiences on exactly how to end their own lives, and for broadcasting a graphic scene in which Hannah slits her own wrists in a bathtub.

In fact, the parents of Bella Herndon and Priscilla Chiu have recently blamed the show for their daughters suicides. Bella and Priscilla, while both from California, had never met each other, but the two committed suicide four days apart. KTVU sat down with Priscilla’s uncle, Peter Chiu, on June 22nd of this year, where he discussed his nieces suicide: “I feel it’s dangerous for that small percentage of young adults [for whom] the show can become a trigger… and I feel as if the show gives only one alternative for cyberbullying and other teenage issues.” Peter addresses an issue many parents have also seemed to focus on; the show suggesting that suicide is the only way to solve your problems, which many have teens completing the 13 episodes feeling hopeless about their own social situations.

The series presents suicide as what Elizabeth Peyton, a junior high teacher, perfectly summarizes as, “the ultimate eff you to all the people you leave behind,” a way to inflict revenge on those who did wrong. If the show had chosen to highlight the serious effects of suicide on a community, instead of romanticising it by implying that the love of one boy, Clay Jensen, could have saved a depressed teen from killing herself, it may have been an effective deterrent method for troubled teens looking for a way to escape their problems.

We might assume that reviews online of the series made it exceptionally clear that Netflix needed to refine the way it tackled controversial and sensitive issues. So, it comes as a shock that Netflix has released another controversial film, “To The Bone”. This movie follows Ellen (played by Lily Collins) as she fights those around her attempting to help her recover from her anorexia.

Cover art for film “To The Bone” Image by Netflix

Jennifer Rollins, an eating disorder specialist, wrote an article for Huffington Post discussing the film. While she mentions the film was “well intended,” she believes the film only successfully rehashes stereotypes that could have instead been debunked, “I know that often people with eating disorders struggle with the thought of ‘not being sick enough to need treatment.’ This is a common eating disorder fallacy, and the problem with the depiction of eating disorders in this film is that it perpetuates the myth that people with anorexia always appear visibly emaciated.” She stresses that an eating disorder is a form of mental illness and, in our society, “Eating disorders are one of the few mental illnesses where we judge someone’s level of suffering based on their physical appearance.” When only one type of person with anorexia is fed into the media, this is what we, in turn, look for in our peers. This results in us not reaching out to help those with eating disorders until their symptoms become visual, which is oftentimes too late.

Ellen getting monitored by Dr. Williams towards the beginning of the film, Image courtesy of Netflix

Rollins goes on to mention how “To The Bone” glorifies anorexia. Depicting Ellen with “a perfectly done smokey eye, staring sullenly out of the window, cracking funny/sarcastic one-liners, and enjoying fun escapades with friends and family.” makes Anorexia seem all-too-fun, easy, or even a way to gain attention from loved ones. Anorexia is not something that should be romanticized or seen as desirable by any means. The movie fails to show how anorexia often invites depression, hair loss, and osteopenia. These are the ugly truths of this disease that the movie forgets to mention.

The simple fact is that Netflix is becoming the go-to spot for entertainment, stealing 50% of TV ratings in 2015. It is a hub for TV shows and movies appealing to virtually all generations, especially teenagers. With this power comes responsibility. The young minds are definitely watching, how Hannah deals with her bullies, and how Ellen loses that weight by skipping dinner. They see themselves and their peers in those characters. Teenagers are impressionable by the media they consume, and with so much at stake, Netflix cannot afford to publish media about suicide and eating disorders that is under-researched and potentially harmful to its target audience. So, Netflix, if you don’t understand an issue don’t make entertainment about it; young minds are turning to you to see what to do when placed in the position of your fictitious characters. Right now, that has done exceptionally more harm than good.

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Author: Sasha Quinlan

Sasha Quinlan is Senior and one of the co-editors of The Eye. This is her third year reporting on The Eye. Having attended SAS for the past 15 years, she considers Singapore home. Some of her hobbies include binge watching "Clueless", writing, cheering, and eating sweet potatoes. She can be contacted at quinlan18229@sas.edu.sg.
View all posts by Sasha Quinlan

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2 thoughts

Totally agree with you when it comes to 13 Reasons Why. However, I did appreciate To the Bone a lot more because I felt the whole crew had a fuller understanding of anorexia, especially the actress who played Ellen, Lilly Collins, who wrote a book about her experience with the disease. I think they did a good job in avoiding glorifying anorexia, from the way they filmed scenes in the movie to their behaviour on the press tour.

Your comments on 13 Reasons Why I feel are a little misguided. Rather than romanticizing suicide, it was a series that I felt showed that people will rationalize their actions to find reasons to not be seen as guilty. If anything, it showed that the world doesn’t truly change if you choose to commit suicide or not. Besides Clay and Alex’s reactions which were indeed guilt, everyone else rationalized their actions believing that they were not to be blamed. So rather than romanticizing the concept of suicide, it proved that suicide often doesn’t lead to the “revenge” results they want. That the ones who love you are devastated and completely lost, those who were mean to you see it as no big deal, and the school will “care” for a while before everyone moves on with their lives. The series also seemed to highlight everything to NOT do when it comes to someone who is suicidal, like the scenario with the counselor. It showed how far compassion can go, and how people’s actions have consequences even if the isolated event never seemed like “a big deal”.

It sparked much needed conversation. You can never create something like this without posing risks, and it is a shame that some people saw this and decided to take their own life. It is absolutely awful. However, claiming that Netflix doesn’t understand suicide when they had the author of the original novel help with the production of the show is an unfair assumption. Well written article, but I’m unsure as to whether it took into account the whole scope of the argument or situation. Fair points, and valid arguments, but may have done better if it also highlighted the importance of the series and the things the series got right.